Coffee at the Cafe
by s.halliwell24
Summary: Hermione has had a tough time in her love life. One day, she is at a cafe and Draco Malfoy comes in and they begin talking. one-shot; please read and review!


**I read this to myself after I wrote it and I decided that Hermione seems like a bit of a moody person in this and I think it's kinda funny. ANyways, please read and review at the end!**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own any character which you don't recognize. **

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Hermione Granger was sitting in a café reading a book. She was on holiday at the moment and she intended to spend every inch of it relaxing and reading books. This was because once she went back to work, her boss would make sure that she didn't do anything but work. Hermione worked at a top notch wizarding publishing company and every day millions of owls came in with letters from people asking them to publish their books. It got very frustrating to Hermione sometimes, but she enjoyed it. What was better than having a job where you get to read all the time? It wasn't what she had planned to do after she graduated from Hogwarts. Hermione wanted to stay at Hogwarts and teach and possibly carry on S. P.E.W. to the next level. She also wanted to marry a certain someone but then again things don't always go as people expect and she ended up at the Publishing Company.

Anyways, she was at the best part of her book. Currently the main character, whose name was Giselle being forced to make a decision on whether to stay with the man she loved or to follow her parents wishes and get married to the man they wanted to marry. Hermione liked romantic books but there were times when she just couldn't help but wonder hwy people wrote romantic novels when some one always ended up getting hurt.

Hermione took a sip of her coffee and kept devouring every word on the page. One thing that irked her about this particular café was that every time someone entered a bell would ring causing Hermione to look up from her book.

Just as Hermione was about to read whether Giselle chose to stay with the man she loved or obey her parents, the bell rang signaling that someone had entered the café. Hermione looked up sharply at the person, who had entered the café right at that moment. She almost raised an eyebrow when she saw who it was. Draco Malfoy had walked briskly into the café and was looking around for something.

He was dressed in muggle clothes, which looked a bit odd. His blonde hair was neatly combed and his eyes looked as blue as ever.

_Great _thought Hermione_, just my luck…He just had to walk in here right at the best part. _Hermione rolled her eyes and looked back at her book. _And there goes my concentration…_Hermione then decided to pretend to read while watching what Malfoy was doing. She lifted her book up in front of her face and slowly shifted her gaze from the pages to Malfoy.

"Hello there, sir! Welcome to The Café! What can I get for you?" asked the perky waitress by the cash register.

"I'll have a coffee and a bagel," Draco replied.

_As always _thought Hermione _not even a please. _

"Just one moment, sire," said the waitress as she went behind the counter to make his coffee. She reappeared about a minute later with his coffee and a plain bagel with the cream cheese already on it. "Here you go, sir. Your coffee and bagel with cream cheese."

Draco took the coffee then said coldly, "I didn't ask for any cream cheese."

"But sir, I thought…"

"You thought wrong, now get me another bagel…a plain one with no cream cheese."

_God what an ego. "Get me another bagel…a plain one with no cream cheese" what's wrong with him?_

The girl's eyes widened as she quickly got him another bagel. She returned seconds later on the verge of tears. She handed him the bagel and said, "H-here you go s-sir. Ev-everything is f-free of charge."

Draco muttered a thanks at her and she promptly burst into tears. He rolled his eyes at her and began walking towards the tables.

As Hermione was 'reading', she noticed that he was making his way towards her table so she quickly held up her book a little higher and closer to her face. _Don't let him stop here…don't let him stop here…don't let him stop here…_Hermione was out of luck. Seconds later, Draco stopped in front of her table.

"Is this seat taken?"

Hermione held her book up higher and said, "Well, I was actually-"

"This is the only seat I found that was the farthest away from that annoying cash register girl, so please may I sit here?" Hermione lowered her book to reply when he said, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the mudblood."

Hermione looked lifelessly at him and said, "Shut it, ferret. That's getting very old."

"Ferret getting very old," Draco replied sitting down across from her. He took a sip of his coffee and coughed. "God, this thing's burnt too much."

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "That's why you should have told her what kind you wanted."

"Eavesdropping, were we?"

"Malfoy, everyone in the café heard your conversation with that girl. I'd hardly call it eavesdropping."

There was a small beep and Malfoy jumped. "What was that?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at him and said, "My phone. Excuse me a second." Hermione leaned down to the ground to grab her phone out of her purse. She opened it up and said, "Hello? Oh, hi Ron…what? ...I'm a little busy at the moment….I'm running an errand for Mr. Richter….why don't you ask Harry or Ginny….well, I'm sorry but….look, Ron…I'm busy, so please call me back at another time...fine then, and please stop shouting, you're burning a hole in my ear." Hermione snapped her phone shut and let out a sigh of frustration. She looked up at Draco who was laughing at her. "What?"

"You're busy running errands?"

"Ron wanted me to baby sit his children. I'm not particularly fond of going over to his house," replied Hermione coolly.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought you two were going to get married one day."

Hermione stifled a laugh and said, "Well, things don't always go as planned…he's married to Lavender."

Draco took a sip of his coffee and said casually, "His loss."

"What?" asked Hermione.

"Nothing…so tell me what do you do now? Are you a waitress? Do you clean other peoples' houses? Do you do servant work?" asked Draco, hoping to insult her.

Hermione did not seem fazed by this at all; in fact she didn't seem to register what he said. "No, actually, I work for a publishing company. I get free books all the time and I get to read books all the time. It's a really high paying job as well," Hermione replied opening up her book again. "What about you?"

"I inherited the company my father owned."

There was an awkward silence for a bit. Neither of them were making any effort to start up a conversation. Hermione didn't seem to mind either. She was engrossed in her book while Draco was studying its cover.

"What are you reading, Granger?"

"A book."

"About…"

"About this girl who has to choose between the love of her life and her family."

"What do you want her to choose?" asked Draco taking a sip of his coffee.

Hermione looked up from her book with an evil smile and said, "Personally, I hope she chooses her lover then he breaks her heart by saying that he loves someone else."

Draco frowned at her and pulled the book away from her.

"Hey! Give it back, ferret."

Draco flipped through the pages of the book and said, "Tell me something, Granger; did you want that to happen before you got that call from Weasley or after you got that call from him?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm sure you don't, Granger. You're jealous."

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Of what?"

"You're jealous of the fact that Weasley chose Lavender over you."

"What are you talking about? I- I'm perfectly happy for both of them."

"Funny," said Draco, "I recall you saying that you weren't particularly fond of going to their house." Hermione looked away from him and took a long sip of her coffee. "You seem very different, Granger."

"Thank you, kind sir, for noticing," she hissed.

"See, there you go," said Draco. "If I had said that a few years ago, then you would have offered to take me to Madame Pomfrey."

"Are you saying that I've become mean?" asked Hermione, glaring at him.

Draco raised an eyebrow and said, "Err…no you've become bitter."

"And since when did you become and expert on personalities?"

"I'm not…"

Hermione leaned forward and whispered, "Then tell, me; how can you tell that I'm bitter?"

Draco leaned forward as well and said, "You're acting exactly like my mother."

"Your mum?" asked Hermione with an amused look.

"Yes, my Mum. When she found out that Lucius was cheating on her, she became bitter and cold…much worse than you though."

"I'm so glad to hear that," Hermione replied sarcastically.

Draco cocked his head at her then smiled. "Sarcasm is a very dominant Slytherin trait."

Hermione rolled her eyes once again and said, "Are you done with your lecture? I'd really like to finish my book."

Draco raised an eyebrow and said, "Almost. Just listen, Granger…you might think that I may not know anything about love but trust me on this one. If you don't love now, you will never love again. I haven't been loved by my parents for a very long time. Whatever love they had for me vanished a long time ago."

"I'm sorry…I'm not being sarcastic right now."

"Thank you."

Hermione looked at Draco who was staring off into space. "Have you ever loved anyone?" she asked softly.

Draco looked at the table and said, "Yeah…I have…I still do, she just doesn't realize it."

Hermione smiled warmly at him and said, "Well, maybe one day she'll realize it."

Draco got up from the table and smiled or rather smirked back at her, "Maybe she will, Granger, maybe she will."

**The End**


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